Americans Supervising Uprooting of Outposts

American Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer submitted to the Israeli government a list of outposts to be uprooted - and the Americans are closely tracking the implementation of the process.

First Publish: 6/11/2003, 11:54 AM

American Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer submitted to the Israeli government a list of outposts to be uprooted - and the Americans are closely tracking the implementation of the process. The Yesha Council is planning a demonstration outside Kurtzer's home, demanding that the Americans not interfere in internal Israeli matters.

Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, spokesman for the Council of Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, says that the Americans are heavily involved in orchestrating the outpost-dismantling process. He says that an American Consulate diplomat called the Council yesterday, asking for details on the outposts that have so far been removed. "From the questions he asked," Mor-Yosef said, "it was clear that they are heavily involved in what was going on. He asked, for instance, why N'vei Erez South was on the list, given the fact that it was built before the Sharon government was established."

Mor-Yosef says that yesterday's call is just "further evidence" of the fact that the U.S. is dictating the list of outposts slated for uprooting.

It will be recalled that President Bush was very critical of Israel's attempt to kill one of the most outspoken of Israel's enemies yesterday, Abdel Azis Rantisi. He showed more forbearance for the attack in Erez two days earlier in which four Israeli soldiers were killed in an attack orchestrated by Rantisi's Hamas.

The ZOA announced today that Bush's "criticism of Israel for attempting to eliminate a senior Hamas terrorist leader is a blatant contradiction of his own declared policy of pursuing and eliminating terrorists wherever they may be." The ZOA noted that Hamas is responsible for the murder of hundreds of people - including 29 Americans since 1993.